Summary
Out walking the next day, the Macphails pass Miss Thompson, whose leg fat bulges over the tops of her white high-heeled boots. Mrs. Macphail expresses disapproval and says Miss Thompson looks “extremely common.” Later, the doctor encourages his wife to say something to Miss Thompson, saying it is unkind to ignore her. Miss Thompson says the island ought to have a hotel. Later that night, the couples hear Miss Thompson hosting guests in her room again. Suddenly Davidson rises to his feet and says Miss Thompson joined the ship at Honolulu, and must be from the Iwelei red-light district. With horror and indignation, he says she’s “carrying on her trade here.” The missionary explains that the district was finally brought down by legal authorities the day they arrived in Honolulu.
Davidson says he’s going to go down and stop what’s going on in Miss Thompson’s room. The others listen as he clatters down the stairs and opens the door. He hurls the gramophone on the floor. There are sounds of a scuffle, then Davidson returns upstairs and goes to his room. When Davidson’s wife goes after him, Dr. Macphail asks why Davidson couldn’t mind his own business. The gramophone and voices start up again, defiantly.
The next day Mrs. Davidson tells the Macphails of how Davidson couldn’t sleep that night; how the men had poured beer on him. Out on the street, Miss Thompson greets them cheerily. Mrs. Davidson delights at the thought that Miss Thompson’s finery will be ruined in the rain. She speaks of how she would not want to be the poor creature who crosses her husband. Over a meal, while Mrs. Davidson discusses whether they should ask Horn to throw Miss Thompson out, Davidson tells a girl serving them to bring a message to Miss Thompson. He speaks of how it is his duty to talk to Miss Thompson. He says, “She has an immortal soul, and I must do all that is in my power to save it.” The girl returns and says Miss Thompson will speak to Reverend Davidson any time, as long as he doesn’t come during business hours. Dr. Macphail tries to hide his amusement at Miss Thompson’s cheekiness.
After dinner, Davidson goes to Miss Thompson’s room for an hour. Dr. Macphail reflects on how the rain, flowing unmercifully in a deluge from the heavens, is getting on his nerves. It is maddening in its persistence. Davidson returns and says he gave her a chance to repent, but Miss Thompson is an evil woman. He will now pursue her with “the whips with which the Lord Jesus drove the usurers and the money changers out of the Temple of the Most High.”
Dr. Macphail learns the next day from Horn that Davidson asked him not to allow Miss Thompson any visitors. When Horn told Miss Thompson, she gave him hell. Davidson suggests she’ll want to leave, but Horn says no native will take her in now that the missionaries “have got their knife in her.” That night, Miss Thompson plays her gramophone alone. In bed, the Macphails can hear Davidson praying aloud. A few days pass. Miss Thompson no longer greets them in the street. She sulks and has a hunted look. The doctor learns she failed to find lodgings elsewhere. On Sunday, Davidson asks Horn to make her stop playing music. She does. On Monday, Horn tells Dr. Macphail that Miss Thompson is getting worked up because she doesn’t know what Davidson is up to, and she’s scared. Dr. Macphail also has the impression Davidson is weaving a net around Miss Thompson, waiting to pull the strings tight.
More time passes. Dr. Macphail scratches at his mosquito bites and grows irritable in the persistent rains and hot-house sun. He distrusts the unfamiliar and ancient-seeming natives walking by him when he is out. One day he learns that Davidson has been speaking with the island’s governor about Miss Thompson. Miss Thompson confronts Davidson about it while the two couples are sitting after a meal. When she bursts into the room, Davidson offers her a chair and says he’s been wanting to talk to her.
Miss Thompson calls him a poor low-life bastard. She says a man has told her she has to leave on the next boat. Her face is puffy and red from crying. Davidson admits he told the governor about her prostitution, and urged the governor “to take the only possible step consistent with his obligations.” Miss Thompson asks why he couldn’t leave her alone, saying she did him no harm. When she leaves the room, Davidson says it is a relief that the governor finally acted. The governor had said Apia was under British authority, and so it would be their problem. He calls the governor weak and says it is terrible when men in authority seek to evade their responsibility. Davidson says he resorted to threatening the governor by telling the federal government in Washington about the way he manages things in Pago Pago. Davidson says Miss Thompson will have to leave on a boat next Tuesday, in five days.
Analysis
When sounds of revelry rise from Miss Thompson’s room for a second night in a row, Davidson realizes that she must be a sex worker, and the sounds of music, drinking, and men’s voices mean she is seeing customers in her room at the guest house. Dr. Macphail doesn’t dispute the assumption, as he has read about the recently raided Honolulu red-light district Miss Thompson must have fled.
In an action that proves Davidson has no regard for Miss Thompson’s privacy, Davidson rushes down the stairs to stop the sinful behavior the woman is engaged in. After being turned out of the room, Davidson stews in resentment for a day until he goes to speak with Miss Thompson for an hour. However, he cannot break her defiant spirit and convince her to repent, pushing him further into his resentment.
Launching a crusade against the “evil” Miss Thompson, Davidson first attacks her source of income by using his authority to convince Horn to not let her have guests in her room. She also fails to secure another room in Pago Pago because word has traveled among the natives that the missionaries have “their knife” in her, a metaphor for the vengeful campaign the missionaries have started. While it is unclear what Davidson’s plan could be, both Horn and Dr. Macphail sense that Davidson is working to trap Miss Thompson by steadily weaving a “net” around her.
Eventually, the narrator reveals that Davidson has talked to the island’s governor—an American stationed there—and has convinced him to deport Miss Thompson on the next boat back to America. The news is unwelcome to Miss Thompson, who bursts into the parlor to confront Davidson about his cruel meddling in her affairs. While crying, Miss Thompson asks why he had to target her when she had done nothing to harm him, but Davidson is resolute in his cold, calculated attitude toward her.
Once Miss Thompson leaves the room, Davidson reveals to Dr. Macphail that the governor had been indifferent to Miss Thompson’s sex work and so Davidson had resorted to coercion. Unwilling to concede defeat, Davidson again used his authority as a missionary and threatened to tell the federal government about the governor’s lack of action against Miss Thompson, who the governor would have been happy to let go on to Apia. Davidson again uses righteousness to justify morally dubious behavior on his own part; his highest priority is to make others fear him and do as he says.
